


Always On My Mind

by tictactoews



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: Fix-It, M/M, Reconciliation, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-25
Updated: 2012-10-25
Packaged: 2017-11-17 01:05:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/545821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tictactoews/pseuds/tictactoews
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shortly before Mark's birthday, Eduardo has a weird dream. When he wakes up and the dream voice doesn't shut up, he starts to wonder if he's actually hearing Mark's thoughts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always On My Mind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thisissirius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisissirius/gifts).



> To overcome my writer's block, I've asked my tumblr followers to give me tropes and pairings, so I could write short fics and get myself on the roll to finally finish that one WIP I've been procrastinating on for too long.
> 
> These will be short, very trope-y and quite possibly utterly ridiculous. You have been warned.
> 
> This one is for Siri, who asked for a telepathy fic.
> 
> I apologize for the lame title, but that song was stuck in my head from the first moment I started thinking about this story, and it just had to happen.

_Maybe I didn't hold you_   
_All those lonely, lonely times_   
_And I guess I never told you_   
_I'm so happy that you're mine_   
_If I made you feel second best_   
_Girl, I'm so sorry, I was blind_

_You were always on my mind_  
 _You were always on my mind_

(Elvis Presley) _  
_

 

 

Eduardo wakes up with a start.

Having dreams about Mark is not unusual for him, even after the depositions. Even two years later he can still expect his subconscious to betray him with a vision of his ex-best friend, and it always makes him wake up feeling angry and resentful. But this time it was different. This time his own mind crossed the fucking line.

Eduardo can swear he could actually _hear_ Mark's voice in his dream. That was a step up from only seeing blurry visions of his face or twisted, unrealistic scenarios of what had or might have happened between them before and during the lawsuit. What's even worse, Mark's voice in Eduardo's head seemed to be saying things that actual Mark never would, not even when it could have saved everything that they've lost. Eduardo has no idea why his mind would choose to torture him now, but he didn't appreciate its input at all. 

Annoyed, he gets out of the bed and into the shower, intending to wash away all lingering remnants of the dream. He firmly decides not to be bothered about it anymore.

He feels unusually groggy, as if there was thick fog in his head, and decides that he needs coffee right away, preferably in copious amounts. While waiting for it to brew, he realizes that - among his own thoughts - he can hear that dream voice again, and almost drops the mug he's holding.

What the actual fuck.

_He always took his coffee black and sweet. Maybe I should start drinking coffee? I don't even like it but it would be something. Besides, it would be healthier than Red Bull. He would approve. I wonder what he's doing. Must be morning in Singapore, so probably making coffee. Oh shit I should buy coffee, Chris will bitch me out of I don't have any. Maybe decaf for Dustin, though, he'll be high on sugar anyway. Why do they even think I need a birthday party, I've managed okay so far._

Unless Eduardo is inside a very realistic dream, there's no way he can blame it on his subconscious. Mark's voice, clear as day and dry as always, flooded his head. There's no way this could really be happening, except apparently, it is.

Mark's voice shuts up, and Eduardo can think again. Sipping at his coffee (black and sweet, fuck everything), he concludes that there could only be two explanations for this: either he's losing his mind, or...

Eduardo finishes his coffee and books a flight to California. 

**

It isn't until Eduardo stands in front of Mark's door that his resolve starts to falter. He figured that the upcoming birthday that the Markvoice had mentioned would give him a perfect excuse to see Mark and check if he's the only one hearing voices, or if it is a mutual thing (Markvoice's remarkable timing when it commented on Eduardo's coffee drinking habits prompted him to think that it could be not entirely coincidental). Now, though, he's starting to have doubts. What if he's wrong? What if Mark shuts the door in his face? What if he doesn't? What is he going to say to Chris and Dustin, "I missed you so I just randomly decided to crash the birthday party of a man I've hated for two years"?

He did not think this through.

Before he can talk himself out of it, turn tail and run back to the airport, Eduardo rings the doorbell.

Mark opens the door wearing a truly ridiculous party hat and sporting a hot pink feather boa around his neck. 

"Mark, what the fuck are you wearing?" are not exactly the words he would imagine to be the first he says to Mark after two years, but they escape Eduardo's mouth before he can even think about it.

Mark grants him a tiny smirk and shrugs. He doesn't look overly surprised to see Eduardo, but the tension is apparent in his posture and the wary expression of his eyes.

"Ask Dustin. Or maybe don't, I don't think you'd want to know."

Eduardo huffs out a laugh. "Yeah, I probably don't," he agrees, and suddenly finds himself at a loss for words. This is frustrating, for all intents and purposes Mark should be the more uncomfortable one in this scenario. On the other hand, Mark is not the one who should justify his presence there.

Before he can figure out what to say, Dustin appears behind Mark's back and literally squeals when he spots Eduardo.

"Ward-o!" he exclaims, and wraps Eduardo up in a forceful hug, like there's nothing weird about Eduardo standing at Mark's doorstep and making godawful small talk. 

Eduardo squeezes him back, then hugs Chris, too, and after that there's nothing else for him to do than come in and join the party.

Eduardo is sitting on a couch in Mark's living room, a glass of the French wine he's brought as an impromptu gift for Mark in hand, and Chris sitting next to him watching Mark kick Dustin's ass at some video game with an amused smile. If Eduardo mentally squints hard enough, he can almost imagine this is just like the long nights at Kirkland an entire era ago.

Except that things were much simpler back then, before the Facebook debacle and without all that freaky mind reading business.

And without feather boas, but Eduardo still doesn't want to know.

So far, nobody inquires about Eduardo's unannounced visit, nobody asks inconvenient questions or, for that matter, makes him explain anything. Eduardo sighs and lets himself relax a little bit more, only looking to his left when he hears a soft snicker coming from Chris.

Chris's eyes are now fixed on Eduardo, sparkling with badly hidden amusement. Eduardo raises his eyebrows in reply.

"Hey, I'm not asking," Chris offers an apparent non-sequitur. Eduardo might have been away from them for two years, but he's still not falling for Chris's innocent act.

"Yes, you were not asking very loudly," Eduardo says, and Chris grins even wider.

"Not here," Chris says, and nods towards Dustin and Mark. They seem too absorbed in their game and busy trash-talking each other to notice anything else, but you never know with Mark. Eduardo is not willing to take any chances, either. "Come on, I want another beer," Chris adds, and Eduardo follows him into the kitchen.

He waits till Chris uncaps the bottle he takes out of the fridge and looks at Eduardo expectantly, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"So? Don't tell me you just missed him and decided to catch up," Chris says, a wry smile on his face.

"Maybe I missed you, did you ever think of that?"

"Well, then you would have crashed my birthday party."

Eduardo laughs. "I suppose you're right..." he says, and looks up at Chris, who's starting to look concerned. Eduardo shakes his head. "I don't know, man, I honestly don't know how to explain this," he offers, which is, well, true. "I guess I just need to talk to him, and it seemed as good a time as any. Better, maybe, since he's less likely to be pissy on his own birthday."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Chris says, and his smile is back. "Did you not see what Dustin did to him for this party?"

Eduardo has never been more grateful to Chris for not pushing. "I saw. Mark told me not to ask, but-- Is this a normal thing now?" The Mark that Eduardo knew would have bitched Dustin out, thrown his ridiculous party props out the window, and then gone on a thirty hour coding binge fueled with RedBull and whatever Eduardo would have brought him to keep him from death of malnutrition.

"I wouldn't say that," Chris replies. "It's more like an intervention, I guess. Dustin thought the situation required drastic measures and I didn't disagree."

"Oh? What happened?"

Chris shrugs. "Beats me. Mark's just been... weird, lately."

Eduardo gives him a pointed look.

"More so than usual," Chris amends, laughing. "He's been... sulking. Seemed preoccupied, but wouldn't tell anyone why. And his efficiency at work plummeted, so it couldn't be any of the usual workaholic reasons. I don't know, we just thought he could use a distraction."

Eduardo has a theory as to the origins of Mark's... condition, but he decides to keep it for himself for now. "And the more ridiculous one the better?" he asks, pointing to the colorful balloons adorning the kitchen.

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Did it? I don't know, Chris, I'm asking. I didn't see what he'd been like before."

"He's better now, although..." Chris narrows his eyes at Eduardo.

"What?" Eduardo asks, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"The party had barely started when you got here. Now I'm not sure..."

"What?" Eduardo repeats. 

Chris shrugs. "Not sure if he's better because of the party, or because of you," he says just before they walk back into the living room.

When they get back, Dustin is in the middle of a mock-serious temper tantrum over another lost game. Mark is actually laughing, the way Eduardo hasn't seen him in years, so hard that his dimples start to show, and he looks... _adorable._

Mark's eyes shoot up to look at Eduardo, eyebrows raised.

Shit. Of course the connection would kick in exactly now.

Eduardo acts like nothing's happened, reclaims his spot on the couch and tries very hard not to think about anything Mark-related. He ends up thinking about weather, which for anyone else would be a nice and harmless default topic, but it makes Mark snort into his game controller. Eduardo hopes that flipping the bird in his mind translates well over telepathic connection.

"Do you guys want to play?" Dustin asks, offering his controller to Chris. Mark looks like he's about to get up from the floor and hand his over to Eduardo, when Chris answers.

"So you can mock me till the end of my days? No thanks."

"How about we watch a movie?" Mark suggests, and Eduardo feels very grateful for this opportunity not to talk to anybody for a couple of hours. Now if only he could stop thinking, too, that would be great.

"Only if there's pizza, I'm starving," Dustin says, and yeah, they could use some food. Mark calls the pizza place while Dustin picks out and sets up the movie.

Dustin settles himself on the couch between Chris and Eduardo, but Mark stays on the carpet, his back against the armrest of the couch, and his left shoulder touching Eduardo's leg. 

Eduardo's breath catches when he feels a sensation like a mild electrical current run through his body, and judging by the way Mark shudders, he can feel it, too. He doesn't move away, though, quite the contrary - he settles more firmly against Eduardo and fixes his eyes on the TV screen. Eduardo does the same, trying his best not to think.

It isn't long before Eduardo realizes that even though the buzzing feeling is gone, the connection is permanently established now that they're touching. Mark's thoughts are a mix of sarcastic comments about the movie, amusement at Chris's and Dustin's bickering, and what seems like a bunch of confused feelings toward Eduardo's presence in his house: Eduardo can sense nervousness, relief, determination, and hope, all jumbled up and so unlike everything he would imagine about Mark's mind, always so collected and organized.

The chaos of Mark's emotions is adding to Eduardo's own uneasiness, so he reaches out instinctively and places a hand on Mark's shoulder, rubbing gently at the patch of skin right above the collar of Mark's t-shirt. Mark's body - and mind - relaxes immediately, as he leans into the touch and rests his head against the side of Eduardo's leg. If Chris and Dustin notice anything, they don't say a word.

After the movie is over, three pizzas are destroyed and all the booze is gone, they decide to call it a night.

"Wardo, you wanna share a cab to your hotel? Where are you staying?" Dustin asks.

"I, uh--" Eduardo stammers. He'd been so preoccupied with the idea of just coming here and seeing Mark that he didn't even think about booking a hotel room. "I don't have anything booked. You guys go ahead, I'll call another cab and find some place."

"You could stay," Mark says quickly. "I have a guest room. It's yours if you want it," he adds, and bites at his lip in a rare display of uncertainty. Maybe not so rare now, though, from what Eduardo has seen. He regrets that he can't read Mark's thoughts right now.

He knows he should say no, he can't even begin to think of all the possible ways this could end badly. But he hasn't even had time to talk to Mark properly yet, and that was the entire reason for him to take this trip in the first place. So, it's only logical.

"Yeah, that-- would be great, thank you, Mark," Eduardo says and Mark smiles at him, dimples and everything.

Chris shoots Eduardo an "I hope you know what you're doing" look, and then he and Dustin leave.

The silence they leave behind is charged and awkward. Even though they've been inside each other's minds for the better part of the evening, Eduardo doesn't know how to bring up the topic. 

Mark saves him the dilemma by just showing him to the guest room and saying a short goodnight. Eduardo goes with it; maybe it will be easier in the morning, with a clear head.

He's woken up in the middle of the night by the all too familiar now Markvoice freaking the fuck out in his head. Mark must have sobered up, and it seems like his ability to think a mile a minute is back. Eduardo feels exhausted just from listening to this persistent stream of consciousness.

_He knows that it's happening, of course he does, that's why he's here. Why didn't he say anything? But I didn't, either. But he came here, why else would he come here? Does he want me to stop it? I don't know how to, and neither does he, he would have shut it off already. Can't even imagine how it must be for him, to hear me in his head. How much did he hear anyway? He must have... a lot, if he knew about tonight. Oh God no wonder he didn't want to talk to me, I wouldn't want to talk to me either after the sulkfest he must have heard. Could he tell I missed him? That I was a fucking mess without him? That I lo---_

"Okay!" Eduardo says out loud, but it doesn't quite drown out the things Markvoice is saying. Eduardo decides that enough is enough, and there's no point in postponing it any further. Determined, he goes to find Mark and confront him.

He finds Mark in the kitchen, standing by the counter, hunched over a mug of tea, which makes for an image so unlike anything Eduardo would associate with Mark that for a second he thinks he might still be dreaming.

"Did I wake you?" Mark asks softly.

Eduardo shrugs. "Kind of. Your-- your thoughts did."

"Oh." Mark stares down at the mug clasped in both his hands. "Sorry."

"Mark, it's not-- we should talk about this," Eduardo says, leaning against the counter right next to Mark, but not touching him. The connection is severed again and he thinks it's in the best interest of this conversation if it stays that way.

"I don't know how to break this, if that's what you want," Mark says, still not looking at Eduardo.

"I know. But we might be able to figure something out, if we... analyze the facts."

"So, what are the facts?"

"When did it start for you?"

"I don't know, like a week ago? First I thought it was a dream, and then that I was going insane. But then you showed up, and I realized you must have been hearing me, too."

"Yeah. It was about the same for me. So we know it's a mutual thing and that it comes and goes. Most often at night," Eduardo sums up.

"Or when we were drinking. It was pretty strong then. And when we--" Mark makes a vague gesture between them. "During the movie. Then it was non-stop."

"Right. So, do you have any idea what caused it? Maybe we could... undo it, or something."

Mark frowns. "I don't know, maybe--" he stops, suddenly, and his cheeks redden a little.

"What?" Eduardo prompts gently. "Mark, anything could be helpful, you have to be honest with me now."

Mark scoffs. "Yeah, you're right. Not like I have anything to lose anyway. Okay, then." Mark takes a deep breath, and continues. "I've kind of had a-- a birthday blues, for the past couple of weeks. I always get a bit nostalgic, or homesick, call it whatever you want, but-- it was worse this year. Somehow."

"What do you mean?"

"I started thinking about you. About what hap-- what I did to you," Mark corrects himself. "I mean, I think about it all the fucking time, to be honest, but recently... well, I realized how much I missed you. And one night I--"

Eduardo stays silent, waiting.

"I wished that I could get to hear your voice again. And boy did my wish come true," Mark says, and huffs out a laugh. "Sorry you got caught in the middle, didn't realize it was a package deal when I summoned my fairy godmother."

Eduardo laughs, but doesn't reply, thinking intensely, and the realization is starting to dawn on him. He thinks back to the past few weeks. Of course he'd remembered about Mark's birthday, much as he tried to push anything connected to Mark out of his mind. It's obvious that he'd been thinking about him more than usual. And that year, no matter how much Eduardo would like to tell himself otherwise, the thoughts carried more regret and nostalgia than anger or resentment. 

Eduardo looks at Mark, who's staring at him expectantly, arms folded in front of him in a defensive gesture. Right, he just spilled his feelings all over Eduardo, for the first time in his life, and Eduardo is too busy having a revelation to respond.

"I missed you, too," Eduardo admits eventually, and Mark closes his eyes, letting out a shuddering breath. Then he looks at Eduardo with new intensity.

"I'm sorry, Wardo. I was-- I'm an idiot, and an asshole, and I know I shouldn't expect you to forgive me just because I somehow forced you to telepathically listen to my whining, but I need you to know. I'm so fucking sorry." Mark blinks rapidly, his eyes suspiciously shiny.

"I know," Eduardo replies, because he's heard too much to doubt it at this point.

Apparently, Mark decides to go all out since he's already on a roll.

"I love you," he says, voice even and steady.

"I know," Eduardo repeats, trying not to sound too much like Han Solo. "I heard."

Mark blushes again. "Of course you did."

He's starting to close in on himself again, and Eduardo can't have that. He steps closer to Mark, unfolds his arms from his chest and holds on to Mark's hands, squeezing. "I love you too, asshole," he whispers, and kisses Mark firmly before he can respond.

Eduardo can feel it for a second when their lips meet - a flash of overwhelming, euphoric happiness that is not just his own - before it ends, and it's just the two of them, each in their own mind.

"Hey," Eduardo says, pulling away from the kiss. "I think we're free!"

"Yes, but don't stop," Mark whines, pulling Eduardo back down. 

Eduardo laughs, and obliges.


End file.
